Grant Holmes added a new pitch this winter

Could the addition of a kick-change give Holmes the weapon needed to stick as a starter?

In some ways, the credit for Grant Holmes making the majors comes down to adding a “boring-ass slider”.

But his ability to stick as a starter in the majors might come down to adding a kick-change.

When Atlanta brought in Holmes from the then-Oakland Athletics in late 2022, then sent him to the minors to do some things: Work in relief, which gave him a velo bump, and to add a slider. Nothing special - not a sweeper, not some sort of gyro-ball, just a “boring ass slider”.

It appears to have worked. Holmes finally made his MLB debut at the age of 28 and went 2-1 with a 3.56 ERA in 26 appearances, including seven starts.

But the next step towards his conversion to a full-time starting pitcher might be his offseason addition of a kick-change. A variation on a traditional changeup, developed by pitching lab Tread Athletics, the kick-change is designed to be thrown harder than a traditional changeup while maintaining depth later in the pitch’s flight to the plate.

And it has the potential to be a game changer for Holmes.

It fills a need for Holmes

Here’s a pitch plot of his from last season - notice how most of his pitches don’t move exactly as expected (with the exception of the fastball, which we’ll get to), but virtually everything that’s not the fastball moves towards the first base side of the plate?

Because of that, lefties have hit 35 points higher than righties when facing Holmes.

The kick-change can help with that.

Holmes threw 12 changeups in competition last year - the pitch came in hot, at 91 mph, but also had 12 inches of vertical break. That’s why the green dot on that pitch plot is right below the fastball area. It’s typically hard to add drop to a changeup without cutting velocity.

But not when you throw a kick-change.

On Friday, Holmes got to 0” vertical break while maintaining his exceptional existing velocity.

And it’s a big deal. Here’s a new Stuff+ calculation of Holmes’ arsenal with a kick-chnge added in:

Courtesy of @TJStats

See how it almost immediately becomes an above-average pitch, giving him three? That’s good stuff.

There’s a reason I’m so high on Holmes not only sticking in the rotation all year but being postseason-starter quality.